Friday, January 11, 2008

The Art of Frustration

Sometimes it is best to just let sleeping tigers lie.

Boy, what a day. It appears that I woke up in the middle of an obstacle course this morning. I endured hurdles and roadblocks all day long. First, I had to get up (that was a hurdle in itself, because I was still sleepy when my alarm went off.) But, on Friday's I have to get the kids up and dressed for school and walk them across the street to my neighbors house. Well, my kids are as grumpy and I am when you wake them up in the morning. Nathan had something in his eye this morning, so I spent an extra 10minutes wrestling with him to let me look at it. But finally we made it across the street.

Then my commute to work began. Over half of my drive to work is through construction. Not to mention, our parking gate to the parking lot where I work doesn't function properly half the time. Well, I arrive to work 8 minutes late.

Do you ever get the feeling that you work with a bunch of monkeys?

Yes, in this case they are gorrillas.

Then the fun stuff begins. I start working and two hours into the morning our computers go down. Two hours later and they are still not back up. Three hours into the morning and we have two computers that are functioning at about 75%. So 12 people take turns doing work on 2 partially functioning computers. The computers never ever came back up. How I managed to only work over 30 minutes is beyond me.

My commute back home went relatively well.

Then I started my second full time job. Parenthood. (I am rolling my eyes right now and sighing deeply.) My boys are in Boy Scouts. And tonight is the night that we weigh in our pinewood derby cars. We have basically been working for a month making a car out of a block of wood. I have put most of the work into them. Well, I was gluing a weight on them, and I managed to superglue the rear wheels to the axle so that they would not turn anymore. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY. I consult with my superglue specialist, Jeanetta, and she suggests that I douse them with fingernail polish remover. Well, I don't have any(I don't have any fingernails either. I keep them trimmed because germs grow under your nails. YUCK!) But, I borrowed some from my neighbor. I pry off the wheels and soak those babies off and on for two hours. Between soakings, I am using a hammer, screwdriver and any other tool I can get my hands on to help pry the wheel off of the nail it is glued too. Finally, I am successful. I get the wheels functioning and off to the weigh in we go. We are 1oz over the limit. My weight was too heavy. ARRRRGH. Luckily, they have a tool box full of weights. So I tell the boys to fish through the box and pick out some things they like. Then I have to explain to them that they cannot completely cover the car with weights because it would be too heavy and it would be disqualified. After explaining this three or four times to each child we get the cars finished, and checked and decide to go eat Chinese. Word to the wise, don't ever volunteer to take two six year old boys out to eat Chinese when you are already frustrated and ready to kill someone. Especially by yourself. My husband calls us in the middle of dinner and doesn't like all of the noise he can hear and asks me if I could get away from the noise. I tell him no. I told him that I was in the middle of a restaurant with the boys and I could not very well just get up and walk out. He hangs up on me. (Don't worry, I called him back! And no, no one is dead and yes we are still married. ha ha). Anyway, I have bored all of you for way too long. I am now sitting here typing this long winded recollection of my day. I am happy to report that my headache is subsiding, and I think my blood pressure is slowly returning to normal. I commend all of you for reading this all the way through, and please forgive me for my ramblings. But telling you all of this has certainly made me feel better. But, I really do wish I was aboard a ship and sailing away to Paradise.

6 comments:

G'day Cecile,You have had one heck of a day! I don't know how you maintained you sanity. It's a wonder you didn't lock yourself in a room and throw away the key.You were very patient with your boys regarding the derby car. I would have either gone ballistic or very, very quiet. Surely tomorrow can only get better?

In response to the last sentence...Honey, unfortunately, you are not! And yes, I made it all the way to the end and enjoyed the ride! I'm still laughing. Thank you for including us in your day and trusting that we would understand. I know I do. I don't have kids, but as you're aware grew up in a huge family and now have A LOT of animals. It's similar. Trust me! Every day is an event.

After all "your" work, I pray to God (and I'm not religious!) the car isn't disqualified. Good luck with that. Sounds like you deserve the ribbon if your sons win! If they win tell them "Well, the rules state, Mommy has to wear this thing pinned to her chest for no less than a month!"

Please don't ever stop writing as openly as you do. It's a joy to read your blog because you make the day I had pale in comparison (thank you!!!)! Perspective is a good thing. And no you never bore me and I doubt you do others. Writing is cathartic and anything it can do to elleviate a headache or high blood pressure is a wonderful thing! Keep writing and we'll keep reading.

Have a great day (Sunday) and enjoy the ride in your pinewood derby car! Honestly, I don't think work is ever as difficult as parenthood, so enjoy your time there!

About Me

I am a Microbiologist by trade, but in my spare time I choose to exercise the right side of my brain with art. Music is my passion, writing is my gift, and painting is my hobby. My life revolves around my twins, and is filled to the very rim with love, beauty, and joy.